I don't know who is in charge of the weather here lately but as I'm sure you all know, this weekend in the Smokies was another phenomenal opportunity to get out and fish in, wait, February...?? You could have fooled me because it sure seemed about like April if not May and boy did it fish like it too...

Being the single, trout bumin' guy that I am, I actually had some money left over after the Valentine's Day madness to splurge on flies and supplies at LRO, which I happily did. After a quick visit to the shop Friday morning, I decided that it has just been way too long since my last brook trout back in early November and so that basically set the course for the day. I headed for the MPLR to snag a few bows and see who was home up on Sams. I have to tell you... I just had to stop for a few moments and take it all in even before ever wetting a line. It was just a perfect picturesque morning even without all the color and splendor about to show up here in a few weeks. Just being on the water at times like this makes it all worthwhile in my book.

Up on Sams it didn't take long and I found what I came for. The brookies were fairly eager even if their takes were not the typical lightning strike that comes with spring weather and warmer temps. I still had a good mix of specs both on the dry and BH nymph and all fairly small until... I lost a whale up there in one of those pools!! I wasn't even aware that the species could actually survive in such small mountain pocket water ... I was actually quite depressed afterwards so I found some more bows down on Thunderhead that helped cheer me up on the way out.

And that pretty much sums up Friday ... now on to Saturday.

If you happened to be fishing Friday and thought you made out, you kind of did in a way, unless of course that is you got to fish on Saturday as well. Yet another picture perfect spring day as I headed up over the mountain again and it was just amazing out with clear skies everywhere. By noon I was actually hot and miserable with bugs all in my face and crawling all over me, can it get any worse?? I mean it was 65 degrees and bugs were everywhere and the trout sure seemed to notice too... I don't think I caught one trout on a nymph. It was really just another great day on the water, numbers aside... From reading the other reports, it looks like a few of you members that were out this weekend know what I mean...

Tight Lines,

As you can see here ... just a beautiful morning on the Middle Prong, the river awaits!

First fish ... a nice healthy bow.

You think that a fish might live in this inviting pool... ??

Yep...

Another eager brookie...

Another nice pool...

A fat little bow from Thunderhead...

Up and over the mountain on a beautiful Saturday morning...

Found a healthy dose of bows on Saturday, most of which looked like this...

Looks like you had a great trip! Love the pictures, As a matter of fact I made the first river shot my background image on my work desktop computer! That area was my and my sons first fishing trip in the smokys. I must say you did much better than the two of us! Thanks for the post and rekindling some memories. flyguys

Looks like you had a great trip! Love the pictures, As a matter of fact I made the first river shot my background image on my work desktop computer! That area was my and my sons first fishing trip in the smokys. I must say you did much better than the two of us! Thanks for the post and rekindling some memories. flyguys

You know... two things kill me about that shot. One, I almost wish I had my tripod with me instead of my fly rod and two, I don't know how I forgot my lens hood at home... Anyway, I loved this perspective after reviewing my shots and I said "I just have to use this one regardless". It moved me the most and that's what I was looking for. I wanted to capture what I was experiencing that morning and it sounds like it worked...

I sincerely appreciate your comments and now I fully intend to spend some time with this shot in PP. If you provide an email address, I will be sure to send you a full sized image when finished so you can enjoy it even more...